Proof-reading checklist.

Before submitting your Gatsby essay, proof for:

• correct formatting (heading, header, margins, etc.)
• correct spelling and consistent tense
• active voice and third person formal language
• correct punctuation usage, especially comma splices
• omit fragments and run-ons and pare down wordy sentences
• smooth transitions between sentences and paragraphs, logical organization of ideas
• correct quotation integration and citation usage
• clear, focused, and concise thesis
• omit any excessive plot summaries
  
• appropriate length

Q4, week 8 skedj.

Monday
In Class: Quotation integration revisited.
Homework: Continue working on first draft.

Day 2
In Class: Complete full first draft by end of class.
Homework: Self and peer edit.

Day 3
In Class: Writing workshop.
Homework: Complete final draft. Submit via Turn It In before class meets on Friday.

Friday
In Class: TBD.
Homework: Read a few good books, get outside, play, laugh, write, avoid misusing the term "irony," eat popsicles (but not in bed), use Facebook to have a sophisticated and intelligent conversation about something worthwhile, go to a drive-in theater, learn new words, start a band, call a friend from class in the middle of the night and rehearse lines lines from an American Lit book, buy a Slip n' Slide, and support your local lemonade stand. Have other ideas? Post them below.

Q4, week 7 skedj.

Monday
In Class: Filling in the narrative gaps.
Homework: Gatsby ch. 9, pp. 163-180 (18).

Day 2
In Class: Gatsby's funeral.
Homework: Close annotation of last passage.

Day 3
In Class: Final discussion re: last passage. Discuss Gatsby passage analysis essay.
Homework: Close annotation of selected passage.

Friday
In Class: Intro & thesis.
Homework: Begin first draft.

"ABC" author in town.

The Hennepin County Library and the Loft Literary Center present a Graphic Novel & Comic Writing and Illustrating Conference, featuring American Born Chinese author, Gene Yang. The events--which are free, though registration is required--will take place at Open Book in downtown Minneapolis. See flyer for details.

Q4, week 6 skedj.

Reminder: Your summer reading choice is due this Wednesday. Find the list of selections here. Once you've made your selection, sign up in my classroom.

Monday
In Class: "[Daisy:] The colossal vitality of his illusion."
Homework: Gatsby ch. 6, pp. 97-111 (15).

Day 2
In Class: Inventions and incarnations.
Homework: Gatsby first half of ch. 7, pp. 113-125 (13).

Day 3
In Class: Fitzgerald cranks up the heat. (A shame they didn't have air-conditioning in the 20s.)
Homework:

• Close annotation of "He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: 'I never loved you'" . . . "But they made no sound and what I almost remembered was uncommunicable forever" (109-111).
  
• Read second half of ch. 7, pp. 125-145 (21).

Friday
In Class: "[A] rotten crowd."
Homework: Gatsby ch. 8, pp. 147-162 (16).

Keep your books!

If you are planning on taking the AP English test next year, it is a good idea to keep your tenth grade texts until then because you'll want to review them in preparation. Plus, keeping them on your bookshelf makes you look smarter.

Close annotation for Day 2.

Choose one of the following passages on which to conduct a close reading/annotation:

• Nick's house: "I lived at West Egg . . . all for eighty dollars a month" (5).
  
• Tom & Daisy Buchanan's house: "And so it happened" . . . "with his legs apart on the front porch" (6) and "We walked through a high hallway" . . . "as wind does on the sea" (7-8).
  
• valley of ashes and the Wilson's garage: "About half way between West Egg and New York" . . . "I first met Tom Buchanan's mistress" (23-24).
  

See you "close annotations" handout for a refresher on the steps you must execute. The steps are also listed here: "A refresher on annotations."

Find your passage from the online text of the novel here. Copy and paste it into a Word document. Change the page format to "landscape" (horizontal justification). Fit the passage to no more than one page and be sure that you have enough space in between each line to adequately mark up the passage.

Once you've done your close annotation, address the following questions:

• In what ways does the setting (place, specifically) of your passage reflect the character(s) who occupy it?
• Is it significant that the place is described by Nick and not someone else? Yes. Why? (Consider that narrative point of view is, essentially, a filter through which the reader understands the events of the novel. Consider, too, the way in which Nick is characterized.)
  

Q4, week 5 skedj.

Monday
In Class: More on characterization.
Homework: Close annotation on setting. (See post above.)

Day 2
In Class: Ch. 1 & 2 close annotations.
Homework: Gatsby ch. 3, pp. 39-59 (21).

Day 3
In Class: Gatsby's party.
Homework: Gatsby ch. 4, pp. 61-80 (20).

Friday
In Class: Back story revealed.
Homework:

• Write a solid paragraph synthesizing the following lines from chapter four:
  
  • “‘I tried very hard to die, but I seemed to bear an enchanted life’” (66).
  • “‘Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge’ . . . Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder” (69).
  • “Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor” (78).
• Gatsby ch. 5, pp. 81-96 (16).